Flooring Update

Kilzed the floor today, just as a precaution against any trapped smells or leftover moisture damage. There are two kinda cushy spots in the floor where the seams come together but there doesn't seem to be anything structural. We will be laying a thin luan layer of wood over the whole thing just for some additional support without lots of extra weight. I am still debating on the couch/bedroom area. Found a complimentary caramaly colored wallpaper for this area but didn't realize i still have to kilz it first which means more painting! Don't get me wrong I love to paint but this area is so close and it is a pain to tape off and edge yikes! I will sleep on it and see how I feel tomorrow. This weekend is the big push to get alot done as john has friday off as well as the weekend! Stay tuned!

Update on the mechanicals.

37 years can produce tons of dirt and rust! Most of what we have come across thus far has just been dirty parts. Once you take them apart and clean them, they seem to work fairly well. John has made friends with some of the dealers on Highway 10 who have been around rv's for quite some time. This has been helpful as they have had great advice on different items. Tonight while cleaning I found the original owners manual which indeed confirms our suspicions that this is a 1973 Indian. I emailed the prez. of the Minnesota Chapter of Winnehahas (owners of Winnebagos) but have yet to hear back. We are hoping to find some Indian owners who may have resources we haven't yet discovered. John is stil questioning the furnace reliability. We may end up buying a portable heater just in case for our trip south next month. South u say? Heat? The last time we went it was only 32 degrees the whole week! Previously John has gone and it has been 72! Hopefully I am not the jinx! We hope to give him a bath this weekend, secure the vent covers on the top of the rig and hopefully put some water into the system. We have yet to figure out if the water heater works. So a quick checklist

furnace-mostly yes
refrigerator-yes
stovetop-yes
oven-working on it
water pump-actually it is an air compressor system-working on it
hot water heater-working on it
invertor-works
engine-works!

Paint Paint Paint

A word to the wise, rv bathrooms are small, small spaces! Spent the weekend putting on two coats of kilz, spray painting a primer made for plastic on the vinyl trim, then bought the high buck primer and paint in one to throw on it! All in all worked pretty well. The "decorative" grooves routed into the doors and painted at the factory with burnt orange are still a bit orangy even after all this! You have to look pretty close but it is still there yikes! 1970's is still hanging on! Found a great hammered spray paint that I used to do ALL of the hardware, that was a job but boy it looks sweet now. Posted some close ups of it, would love to replace some of the handles as the white acrylic part on some is a bit worn. The bathroom color ended up being Pineapple Sorbet which in daylight will pick up the decorative panel on the sink..the sink really pops now doesn't it! I think once I find some cute fabric for the roman shade that picks it up as well, it should all tie in well! The hardware looks pretty good on the woodgrain too!

Friday Night!

Just getting things around for another full weekend of working on this rig. We have about 4 weeks until we leave for Tulsa in this thing! The plan for tomorrow is to reinstall the furnace and pray it works! Then onto the refrigerator which is a whole other deal. Apparantly it runs off both electricity and lp and actually has a pilot light, yikies! Then onto an oil and tranny fluid change. If the furnace works and there is heat, I will be priming the bathroom tomorrow and perhaps paint on Sunday! We have one soft spot in the floor that we will be checking out as well, may just need to lay another layer of luan board down for extra support! I stopped into my favorite store, menards today! Picked up some wallpaper samples. As the paneling is smooth with no ridges, this may be an option. However they did have paintable wallpaper that is heavier specifically for paneling, interesting!

Fabric Selection

So here is how the thought process goes! First u love colors, then you work with what you have and then you go and look at fabric! If you haven't ever visited SR Harris in Osseo, it is something to behold. I think a helicopter would be helpful as the rolls of fabric goes for what seems like miles! Went in there completely open to fabrics and patterns and colors as long as it wasn't brown. Guess what, i bought brown! Ah well, so much for preconceptions. The big bold graphic print is chenille and just fabulous, very well made, this will cover the two couch/bed areas which will really brighten it up. The more subdued stripe in the middle will be the dinette and then the smaller pattern will cover the bed over the drivers area. This will allow us to really get funky fun with paint colors and countertop treatments i think. The new countertop will get edged in stainless steel, have been researching painting laminates and relaminating them. Any suggestions on tops, paint or wall treatments are welcome! I also threw out modge podging the counters...everyone keeled over at the thought! HA! A good friend Kerri forwarded me this link http://www.lileks.com/institute/interiors/BHG/index.html and after looking at it, figured i can't go wrong can I compared to what they did back in the day!

Interior Design Thoughts

Taking a break from the cold to do some internet surfing and check out what ideas are online for this vintage restoration. Not a whole lot on RV renovations but found retrorenovation.com. Am thinking we are going to do clean and fresh but a little funky. I want to give a nod to the past without being in the middle of an orange or avocado mess!

The color pallete so far includes a beautiful dark green, not olive but not forest either, a deep rich orange red, tan and a rich gold color. A trip to SR Harris (fabric wholesaler) is in the works this week to find the fabrics, that will determine alot.

I think we are going to paint the back bathroom in its entirety in a super pale green to freshen it up and get rid of just some of the brown. Plus that will make the vintage viynette pop on the sink. I am trying to treat the lounge/bedroom seperately than the dinette area but still make it cohesive.

There are some super cool sites out there on unique wall treatments. Check out this site http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/look/top-10-affordable-wall-treatments-048136. In addition to the color, all of the grains in this rig go in different directions so your eye never rests on any one place. I have't ruled anything out yet. Tossing around fabric shirring on the walls in the bedroom, vintage vinyl graphics, modgepodge of sepia newspapers..yikes! Even thought about cutting out the middle of the uppercabs and putting in decorative metal.

Pop up your ideas or fav. websites to help the process! Would love any and all ideas!

Boom!

Okay John about blew himself up tonight. WARNING be aware that really old lp powered appliances can be dangerous! Well, we got the stovetop to light, its the cutest stainless number ever! It has a standing pilot in the middle which is excellent, the thermostat is out on the oven so we will have to run the part down on that one. The furnace is another story. John cleaned the rusting burners and is hoping with a new gasket and some new wiring (the old stuff melted when flames were shooting out of it!) will get it right as rain! We also looked at flooring options as shown in the picture. Decided on a light maple vinyl made flooring. It's called Allure and is supposed to be waterproof and very flexible for this type of application. Probably won't be going in until spring however as it needs moderate temps for install!

More Demo Photos

Not to worry, the black in the photos is the old rubber padding.

Day One and Two and Three

Well here we go! Demo! The carpet in these things is laid first, than everything is built on top of it. Great plan but yikes, hard to get the carpet up clean along the edges of the cabinets. Ended up using a utility knife and lots of muscle. We discovered crazy orange tile under the carpet. Hmmmm...does that mean it was tiled and then someone actually put orange shag over the top???? A mystery perhaps never to be solved!

Interior Before Photos

Check out all that orange!

The Before Photos

Here are the initial photos of Big Mo. That's Pete with John handing off the paperwork!

1973 Winnebago Indian-Welcome Big Mo!

Welcome to the Saga of Big Mo. Big Mo is a 1973 Winnebago Indian motorhome that we recently purchased after several months of searching. If you would have told us at the beginning that we would end up with this smashed front end of a vintage coach, we would have laughed you out of the room!

Let me start at the beginning! This family of three (dad, mom and lanky kid) started out in 96 loving RV'ing in a new 96 Damon Challenger that we crisscrossed the country in. From there we went into a toyhauler pull behind that didn't work after a time with the bigger race cars the lanky kid races. This time we decided in this economy to get something with no payments and as we looked at our budget and what the inventory was out there, got pretty depressed. Most of what we looked at was class c and water damaged beyond belief!

Through countless nights of ebay and craigslist, we came to the conclusion we wanted older, built better and with the vintage character something 37 years old would provide! Now, back to the name, this bad boy has a mopar engine in it, a 440 to be exact, hence the nickname, Big Mo.

Come along with us as we remodel and renovate this beauty!